


The Coat

by teleen



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 03:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teleen/pseuds/teleen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The coat was doing well, all things considered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Coat

The coat was doing well, all things considered. It had survived Jack’s life being sucked out of him before Jack went with the Doctor.  And wherever Jack had been while he was away with the Doctor, that coat had held up. When Jack’s ex-partner had come back and thrown him off a building ( _deleting that CCTV footage was just another example of how fun Torchwood could be_ ), it had come through mostly unscathed.

Ianto was wondering exactly what sort of sheep produced the wool that the coat was made from when he found the tear.

It wasn’t large at all, just a tiny rip in the seam under the left arm, but it seemed impossible all the same.

Jack’s coat couldn’t rip. Jack’s coat was like Jack – flawless, indestructible, and incapable of fraying at the edges.

Jack didn’t fray.

Jack held it together, no matter what, because that was who Jack was. Oh, he lost his temper and even cried sometimes when he was sad, but through it all he was always-

Jack.

Ianto didn’t realize that a tear had escaped over the tear until Jack brushed it away.

Jack was silent, but Jack always was at times like this.

Jack pulled the coat out of his hands and drew him in close.

Ianto expected Jack’s hands to move over him, his mouth to move over his skin the way it always had before.

He didn’t expect a hug that was nothing but a hug.

And it broke him in a way he’d thought was long past.

He kept it inside, but perhaps his body betrayed him because the hug didn’t end.

Or perhaps Jack was broken, too, and he’d just never seen it.

Jack was good at hiding things.

It was okay, though.

So was Ianto.


End file.
